Page:Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 2.djvu/34

2 power under his republican spirit of government, and I should say is destined to an importance in spite of itself, for in every view it is the key to India. It is astonishing how much the country is relieved by the overthrow of the royal dynasty; and with respect to the latest reigns of the Timúr family, the change in the condition of things for the better is not more wonderful than it is natural. In Shah Shujah's haughty career, there was little security in all we most value, and robberies and bloodshed disgraced the precincts of his court. Dost Muhammed's citizen-like demeanor and resolute simplicity have suited the people's understanding; he has tried the effect of a new system, and the experiment has succeeded.

My fellow traveller pursues a very good plan for any political object, by keeping up correspondence with every one who has treated him with civility; particularly with our friends in Kábul and Pésháwar. We may soon have to ask Sultan Muhammed for a supply of coals to navigate the Indus; mines have been discovered; and they ought to be worked upon scientific principles. Moorcroft searched in vain for seams, but no doubt the people took up the hint. The specimens which were brought to us indicate the variety to be what is termed anthracite, or slate coal, and consequently as fuel is very meagre; but this may be the exterior crust or shell, and when penetrated, a richer material may be discovered. We saw it in thin plates, of a concave-convex form; the fracture was grey, but without any lustre, and it soiled paper; at first I took it for graphite or plumbago, and I shall not be surprised if that mineral is contiguous. It burnt by the flame of a candle, and gave out a dense gas. We should have sent a specimen to Calcutta, had an opportunity offered. The mine is in the district of Kohát, in the plain-ward hills, and therefore most conveniently situated at the navigable extremity of the Indus. I hear there are mines in Cuch, which thus sets the question of physical capabilities at rest, and supplies the only remaining desideratum. Sultán Muhammed Khán would be delighted at the proposal of working the coal seams, for reciprocal advantages must flow from such a medium. There are also sulphur seams in Kohát; and adjacent, even conterminous with that estate, is the fertile country of the Wazírís, famed, I believe, for a superior breed of horses, and report says, rich in indications of auriferous and other precious ores. Moorcroft paid a visit to that district, and I suspect that he was aware of its mineral deposits. The whole of Afghánistán teems with the germs of metallic treasures, but it may be long ere we become better acquainted with those hidden stores. I was disappointed in not discovering any traces of shells or fossils on the route to Kábul, but we durst scarcely look around us. I was too ill besides, and our journey was too precipitate for any useful purpose.